Headlines from June 16, 2011

Even as the overall U.S. life expectancy is rising, in some counties it's leveling off--or dropping.
With Medicaid dollars set to run out at the end of the month, a growing number of unemployed Americans face an uncertain future.
With the Pentagon buying less, U.S. arms makers ply wares overseas--raising domestic eyebrows at the customer base.
Spurned a decade ago, American retailers discover success in Europe thanks to Gossip Girl, Glee, et al.
I'm really not trying to be known for cursing, so let's keep it about what happened. Children's book author explains why he was booted from a flight.
In the first months of the Civil War, both sides wore blue, gray, and every other color imaginable.
Op: The conservative movement is a means to distribute wealth to celebrities.
The Republican and the Democratic political ad sales teams at Google are kept separate.
To Joyce fans, June 16 means Bloomsday--here are ways to celebrate; the un-inducted can read Ulysses on Twitter.
Colum McCann becomes the second Irish author to win the €100,000 International Impac Dublin Literary Award.
See also: Birnbaum's TMN chat with McCann, who prefers New York to Dublin.
Owner of a half-built, abandoned reactor in the Tennessee Valley can't re-stir interest in nuclear, despite a convincing case.
New discoveries about behavior-controlling tumors question free will and the foundation of the legal system.
Jennifer Egan on the "unattractive, talentless, narcissistic" Madonna's transformation into a global icon.
Video: A retrospective of Woody Allen surrogates, from John Cusack to Owen Wilson.
White House says it doesn't need Congress's approval to support NATO in Libya.
AP joins Journal and LA Times in calling conflict in Libya "civil war."
D.C. politicians say golf patches fissures; Eisenhower played 100+ rounds a year during tenure.
Alternative therapies lack supportive randomized-trial data, but they can work where modern medicine fails.
Op: Japanese craft beer has become ridiculously good.
Doctors replace calf's heart with two centrifugal pumps; calf romps and plays, with no pulse.
Follow-up on the liquid-material scooper video: It's not just cool, it could improve food preparation.
"Facebook fatigue" may prevent Zuckerberg from reaching one-billion-users goal.
What you'll find on websites one letter off from "Facebook."
History of the siren, from 18th-century music to seven noises available to New York police.
Poet offers walks through New York with your sentences provided; one walker's notes.
John Jeremiah Sullivan learns what it means "to Disney," though with weed, parenting, and Walt Disney's tunnels.
60-mile-per-hour impact with pavement is no big deal to a modern, agribusiness tomato.
Dirt-eating documented widely, deeply, with clays consumed "to cut bitterness."
Video: Rap about the hassles of parking a Prius at Whole Foods.
Differing accounts from when Lance Armstrong ran into former teammate Tyler Hamilton in a restaurant.
Video: Visit to the log cabin of Tennessee's William Gay.